Cricket

Travels around India don’t have to include the Taj Mahal, the Gateway of India, or a dip in the Ganges to be special.

Our four-day journey to Karnataka state included stops at Chamundi Hills, the ancestral village for which my father-in-law takes his name—Kuppahalli, and half a click from where we stayed, the Mysore Palace.

Special as these stops were [in Kuppahalli we celebrated Lord Ganesh’s birthday with Pooja inside a village home that’s been standing for 150 years], it was the small moments outside Ajja’s home that defined our stay.

As children will do, regardless of language and age, my sons spent hours playing cricket with the neighborhood kids, learning to bowl and bat, run and score, laugh and cheer in the lot just outside.